FAS Information Technology

FAS Information Technology provides UNIX environments in the form of general UNIX login environment, instructional Unix environments, email services, as well as LINUX lab computers. These services are accessible using the user-name and password provided at the commencement of the FAS affiliation.

General Unix Environment

FAS general UNIX environment is intended primarily for command line client email (such as PINE), command line usenet mail readers and basic text editing. All FAS affiliates with standard (non-consulting or casual) appointments are provided with a shell-access account with 100mb of storage space for email (either through a UNIX command-line client or standard desktop email client such as Thunderbird). This storage space can also be used for storage of data such as documents and web pages.

Instructional Unix Environment

"NICE" Environment

As part of the FAS IT Instructional UNIX Computing environment, the IT Systems group provides a UNIX based instruction environment presently referred to as "NICE" (New Instructional Computing Environment). The storage space available in the instructional environment is shared with the general UNIX environment mentioned above.

The instructional and general UNIX environments are comprised of multiple physical systems; FAS IT does not guarantee that any particular system will be available at any given time.

UNIX User Requirements

The FAS Information Technology IT Sytems group has developed a list of requirements for those wishing to use the UNIX environment. These requirements are designed to ensure user security, availability of resources, and general level of satisfaction.

• Users are expected to take measures to ensure that their passwords are protected (such as choosing a complex password, never writing the password down physically or storing electronically in such a place as others could find, and changing their password periodically). For more information visit the following web page:
• FAS IT highly recommends that users checkpoint (save) their on-going work at reasonable intervals particular to the work being done, especially for processes that may run for extended periods of time unattended.
• Users should not log into specific systems that are part of the instructional or general environments, but rather use the general login address (i.e nice.fas.harvard.edu or fas.harvard.edu).
• All standard policies listed in the Handbook for Students apply to the general login and instructional UNIX environments.
• Users needing to run resource intensive processes are asked to use the UNIX "nice" command.
• FAS IT prohibits more than one resource intensive process per user be run on the instructional environment at a time.
• Use of IRC "Bots" is strictly prohibited.
• FAS IT recommends that the appropriate environments are used for their specific purposes (i.e. checking mail on fas.harvard.edu while completing assignments on nice.fas.harvard.edu).
• The instructional environments are intended primarily for course-related work, research computing is discouraged and users intending to use the systems for that purpose should contact help@fas.harvard.edu to check on the availability of resources.

Administrators reserve the right to end any process without warning in order to maintain system stability. A message is sent after the fact detailing the issue at hand.

Failure to meet user requirements may result in loss of access to the users account.

General support questions for the instructional and general UNIX environments can be reached by writing to help@fas.harvard.edu or calling 617-495-9000. For information on hours please go here.  

Applications

The UNIX environments also provide thousands of programs and utilities for different purposes. Many of these are standard UNIX environment applications, while others are requested specifically for course-related work. Some of the more popular ones being:

• UNIX mail and news readers
  • mail
  • pine
  • mutt
  • elm
  • tin
• Programming
  • emacs/xemacs
  • gcc
  • python
  • perl
• Windowing Environments (intended for use in the LINUX labs)
  • gnome
  • kde
  • window maker
  • xfce
• Mathematical/Statistical
  • R
  • splus
  • Matlab
  • Mathematica
• Productivity Software (intended for use in LINUX labs)
  • Open Office
  • tex/latex

Requesting additional UNIX applications

The IT Systems group handles requests for additional applications on a case-by-case basis. Instructional computing is usually given priority over other requests; requests are not guaranteed approval until reviewed by FAS IT administration. To request additional software, please send your request to help@fas.harvard.edu.

Maintenance:

When the IT Systems group determines that maintenance is necessary on one of the environments, they will usually schedule them between 4:30am and 7:30am. Standard notification methods are used to post the planned maintenances (FAS IT Web Page, My.Harvard). For questions or concerns regarding planned maintenance, please contact the Service Desk at 617-495-9000 or by writing to help@fas.harvard.edu.

Though FAS Information Technology makes every effort to have a fail-safe environment, in the event of emergency maintenance, the System groups will attempt to give 10 minute on-line warnings aside from the standard postings on the main FAS Information Technology page. Reports of possible outages should be made to the Service Desk at 617-495-9000.

Backups and Retrievals

All FAS accounts are backed up on a nightly basis. In the event that files are inadvertently corrupted or deleted, please contact the FAS IT Service Desk (495-9000 or help@fas.harvard.edu) to request that the data be retrieved.  Retrievals are available for 14 days after the data was last backed up. Retrieval requests can take several days to process. Please note that any email or files that you receive or create and then subsequently delete between consecutive nightly backups will not be available for retrieval.

Auditing, Consultation and Monitoring Services

The Systems group provides limited auditing of departmental UNIX environments for security compromises. Because resources are limited, each request is subject to a case-by-case review before being accepted. Depending on staffing and the time of academic year, some requests may be deferred or rejected depending on scope.

The Systems group also provides system monitoring services. This service is provided in tandem with networking. As stated above, all requests are handled on a case-by-case basis and reviewed individually before being accepted and subject to a service level agreement.

Consultation services for departmental UNIX environments are available on a limited case-by-case basis. The Systems group can meet with an interested department to discuss IT needs and provide consultation on system specs, setup and purchase recommendations.

Requests for any of the above should be made to help@fas.harvard.edu and should allow for a week to review.